Westwood Boys Ranch on HWY 29. Just southeast of LH. Just north of Seward Junction. 183 and 29 I went to school in LH. I remember Cedar Park before it was a real city. A blip in the road.
I am sorry you went there. Not a good place.
-- Edited by PhotoPhreak on Thursday 2nd of May 2013 07:26:03 PM
I shared this story on the Al-Anon board in response to another members post, and just thought I would share it here... might give ya good chuckle.
About 26 years ago, I woke up in the local nut hut, with my head shaved, with what looked like green baby diarrhea all over me. I had been in a black out for two days. But hey, that doesn't mean I wasn't doing anything productive in the midst of it! LOL
The story is (I hated when someone else had to tell me what I did) that the thought suddenly crossed my mind that the side of my house needed to be painted. So I went into the garage looked around and found four gallons of different colored paint, mixed them all together, and came up with a horrible pukish, poopish greenish color. But I was mighty proud of my ingenuity!
I opened the garage door and discovered it was pitch black dark outside. Well, now what else could I possibly do? Then came this really spontaneous great idea!! I got out a flashlight and some duct tape. And I duct taped the flashlight to the side of my damn head!! I did a really good job of it too! Duct tape going in every direction across my head, with the flashlight looped into it really tight! That flashlight wasn't going any where! I was sure of that! Again, I was pretty darn proud of my almighty ingenuity!
I got the ladder out, drug it to the side of the house, leaned it up against it, climbed up it and started my attempt at painting the house. Problem was, from what I understand is that I climbed up it with my back to it, so I did a number of butt slides down it, spilling the paint all over me on the way down, but I was not going to get discouraged and deterred from getting the job done. Neighbors heard my ruckus, and watched from their windows as I was trying to perform this great feat. After the 4th or 5th butt slide to the bottom of the ladder, hitting every rung of it with my skinny ass on the way down, one of the neighbors got concerned and called the police. The report was called in at 3:27AM.
They took me to the hospital and ER tried to use a variety of solvents to get the duct tape off my head and out of my hair to no avail, so they had to simply pull it out, and cut it out to remove the flash light from the side of my head.
Everyone said I could not understand why they were making such a big deal out of man trying to paint his house! Heck the neighbors should be glad of my home improvement efforts!
They moved me over the pysch ward and put me in a room that didn't have a mirror because they thought I might have a heart attack when I saw what my head now looked like! What a mess! Where the heck did they learn how to cut hair?? And when they discharged me after 3 days they would not return my flashlight to me! BASTARDS!
You would have thought I literally "hit my bottom" during this event, but nope....Pinkchip is right they can involuntarily commit an alcoholic that poses a danger to themselves or others. My house didn't get a drop of paint on it, but my butt hurt like hell for about 2 weeks!
Ya think the phrase "Alcoholic Insanity" can be found in this story?
I gotta throw in with ya John. That sounds like insanity time 2 or three. I think we might have been a lot alike. When I finally hit my bottom I discovered it had a basement and I was determined to get into it and succeded. When it came to drinking and insanity I didn't do it half way I was all for 110%. God bless ya.
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Tell me and I'll forget. Teach me and I'll remember. Involve me and I'll learn.
Good one John, ... ... ... reminds me of me ... ... ... One evening:
I woke up on the couch and looked at the time and jumped straight up to fix dinner, which I was supposed to have ready that evening for the wife and kid ... ... ... hummmm, what to fix ... 1st, another drink ... I'm in a hurry ... so I got one of those frozen 'bricks' of Jambalaya like you get from Sam's and put water on to boil ... ... ... biggest pot I could find ... when I got the water boiling, I dropped the frozen brick in ... got it back up to a boil ... go get another drink ... come back and check on the 'brick' ... it's a little too long and part of it is sticking out of the pan ... so my bright idea??? ... I thought if I could just 'fold' this brick over, I could get it all under the boiling water ...
I remember thinking, I better go ahead a get another drink before I do this, cause it's going to take a few minutes ... ... ... so, I proceeded to get a long stirring spoon and put pressure on the center of this block of food while it is in the boiling water ... it had softened some, but was still frozen in the middle ... so, like the smart man I was, I put more pressure on the middle of the brick ... well, you can see this coming I know, the brick decided to break ... in the process, it splashed out most of the boiling water, you got it ... all on me (I was wearing a T-shirt and jeans) ... ... ...
I jumped in the shower, clothes and all with the cold water running ... changed clothes and finished dinner and said nothing to the little woman ... (I had drank enough, that I was feeling no pain, then ...) ... Well, I woke up on the couch the next morning, not unusual, and I was in excruciating pain ... I took my shirt off and my wife very nearly passed out, me too ... it looked like there was a basket ball under my skin, all fluid ... I had gotten 2nd degree burns over my chest, from the nipples down to, well, just before you get to 'Mr. Happy' ... ... ... (He really lucked out) ...
Okay ... three weeks of sterilized baths and skin removal, they decided I just, I mean JUST did miss needing skin graphs ... ... ... early on, they said I'd at least lose one nipple ... ... ... hey, I thought, ya know?, these pain pills go great with beer ... my chest skin has never been the same, very sensitive, that was 20 years ago ...
Do you think I qualify for that 'Alcoholic Insanity' you speak of ???
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'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'
October '82, the month after my Dad died. I was living in Austin, TX, Mom lived in outside Liberty Hill on HWY 183.
I got off work, know that I was already half in the bag, went out and partied and remembered that I had promised Mom I would be there the next day(Sun) to help her with the Cows and Horses.
Soooo, hopped in my '72 Mercury Monterrey( 8 cyl 402? hp) and headed home at about 90-100MPH. Went thru Cedar Park and a Cop picked up on me. Well, I am NOT going to stop! I will just go home! HA! Sooo, just south of Cedar park was a wicked S curve over a Railroad Track. How I did not crash and burn I don't know. I think I was doing 110-120 at the time. He is shining his light in my mirrors the whole 9 yards. About 10 miles later I came to my house and pulled over. Went to open the gate thinking I could just go home and sleep. Really? He jumped out of his car...BTW Gun Barrels DO look 6 ft wide when they are pointed at you. I can attest to this. In the mean time a Super Trooper pulls up and asks if the County Mountie needs help. He says no.
I was blubbering and crying. Not doing the poor female thing I just realized what was going to happen. He cuffed me and put me in the front seat??? He asked me in a very kind voice why I had done what I did. I told him about Dad and what was going on. I noticed that he had a Zane Grey book and commented on it. (more on this later) He took me to Georgetown, the County Seat with the only Jail. I was booked in. The rest is a blur but for some reason he(?) the judge(?) reduced the charges to 80 in a 70....
Now to the Zane Grey, I used to read them. I found the courage to pack mine up and go to G'town and give them to him. My feeble attempt at a Thank You. He was in the field so I left them there. I don't know if he got them or not and it doesn't matter.
Did this give me incentive to sober up? Nope!
The long and the short of it, God had a Plan for me. He put this Skinny Red Haired Cop in my life for a reason.
Dori, as I read your post I had a moment of flash back history...
Lived in Austin from about 15 years old til I was in my mid twenties. Loved it there. Loved hanging out around the University during the day where vendors and musicians filled the street: Guadalupe Street. Then at night... 6th street. A street of about 300 bars. Spent alot of time growing up with Musicians around me. Willie, Waylyn, Amylou, B B King, Jerry F Walker, Michael Murphy, B.W Stevens... etc. Always had a back stage pass at the Armadilla World Headquarters and Liberty Launch, where all the drunks and pot heads hung out to hear their music for free before they became superstars. When i went to school it was at Fuller Jr. High off of Congress Ave, and Travis High School off of I-10. Of course being an alcoholic by the time I hit 14 I didn't get to spend much time in school... had too many other things to do. LOL
Liberty Hill... the state didn't know what to do with me, so they sent me to a juvnile psych/alcohol drug treatment program called Westwood Boys Ranch, it is still there, but called something else now, and seems to be used for predominately for juvnile deliquents now. While there, they had schooling, but its was below my schliastic ability (imagine that!) so they bused about 10 out of around 200 of us into Georgetown to attend public school there. I got kicked out for instigating a student riot, whites against hispanics when I found me a nice spanish girlfriend and would not give her up! LOL Why? because her family ran tons of pot into the Austin area every year, and I wasn't about to give up that connection! LOL
Cedar Park Police... got picked up by a boy in blue there on a public intoxication charge there... and they took me to an Annex police dept. Where all drunk I swore if he'd take the hand cuffs off of me, I'd whip his ass. He took the hand cuffs off of me and guess what? He whipped my ass! BAD
Then about 10 years later I'm newly married, with 3 step daughters and my only son... and the girls bio father is coming to visit them for a few hours. A cop shows up at my doorstep off Lamar Blvd. He looks familar, but all cops look the same to me back then... BAD. He asked if he knew me, and I told him he looked familar too. Then his eyes damn near popped out of his head..."You're the drunk that told me a few years ago that if I took the handcuffs off you, you'd whip my ass!" I did and I whipped your ass!" I shook his hand and said, "yeah, I remember that... good to meet ya, I'm the drunk that also took your wife, your kids and your car.... c'on in." The visit only lasted about 15 minutes. LMAO!
Wow! that stirs up some memories. Most of my shenanigans involved thrill seeking, motor vehicles, or late night visits to folks that weren't expecting me lol
I once ... OK twice... Threw a brick through an ex- boyfriends window while wailing "Why don't you answer when I call you???!!!" at 3am with a bottle of Jameson's in my hand.. Then passed out in the street in front of his house... In nothing but a bra and jeans (barefoot). Does that count? That was a helluva walk home at 6am when as the sun was coming up. Thankfully, there was still some Jameson's left to accompany me on that walk.
Wow Col, ... ... ... glad you didn't have a gun ... ... ... uh, note to self ... uh, if Col ever calls me, be damn sure I answer the phone!!! ... ... ...
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'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'
LOL Pappy! I honestly couldn't figure out why he didn't want to get back together- I was such a great catch!! The only reason I didn't wind up in jail is that he had crashed at his buddies house and wasnt home.
Several times I came to from a blackout wondering where I was. So I would find a newspaper box to 1. find out what day it was and 2. find out what town I was in. Then I'd grab my bottle have a drink and wonder why the hell I went there since I didn't know anyone there. Then I would head merrily down the road toward home. I had some great road trips I don't remember but I'm sure they were fun.
__________________
Tell me and I'll forget. Teach me and I'll remember. Involve me and I'll learn.
LOL Pappy! I honestly couldn't figure out why he didn't want to get back together- I was such a great catch!! The only reason I didn't wind up in jail is that he had crashed at his buddies house and wasnt home.
Damn girl, ... ... ... I was taking a sip of coffe when I read this ... I snorted in the middle of my sip and the coffee came right out my nose ...
__________________
'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'
LOL Pappy! I honestly couldn't figure out why he didn't want to get back together- I was such a great catch!! The only reason I didn't wind up in jail is that he had crashed at his buddies house and wasnt home.
Well gee, makes perfect sense to me!
Reading these makes me wonder how any of us got out.
